revolutions & friday dance

yowza...  it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks....

the first week of march, we celebrated paloma's 10 revolutions around the sun (and shortly thereafter, my 41 revs... ay caramba!  yes, you have to say it like bart simpson...)

paloma asked for a studio ghibli/miyazaki birthday party/sleepover...  she basically wanted to marathon movie watch and dance battle her friends on wii...  we also planned to have a cake featuring miyazaki characters... (Haru & Baron from Cat Returns, Haku and Chihiro from Spirited Away, Howl and Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle, Totoro, Satsuki & Mei from My Neighbor Totoro)

(no, i didn't cut the cake with my rotary cutter, sassycrackers...)  O_o

and paloma also kept asking if i could make her this dress from The Cat Returns.

*insert boisterous laugh track here* (although, this cosplay of Haru is OFF THE CHAIN. holla!)

eventually, we settled on me making a totoro t-shirt with a pale yellow tutu skirt inspired by that dress for her and matching skirts for her friends... *whew*

 

sadly, all of my grand pinning of miyazaki party ideas on pinterest (i love that that search actually yielded results! *fistbump* pinterest! )  failed, because i caught another Emperor Virus McSicklypants cold....  i finished making the shirt and skirt for paloma but i didn't get a chance to finish her friends' matching skirts...  they're close though...  all in all the young ladies seemed to enjoy themselves... evidence there was much rejoicing...

a few days later, i celebrated my birthday in chicago:

and then i flew out to new jersey to celebrate my bff, corey's birthday with her beautiful family:

corey also has the teensyest tinyest rice cooker i have seen....   ever...   it looks like a toy!!

there were many highlights during the trip including getting lost in princeton...  seriously, who knew we'd get lost on campus...  

princeton is a lovely college town.  i geeked out and saw einstein's house...  but i was too chicken to take a picture, since it's still a residence...  there was signage everywhere exclaiming "Happy Pi Day!"  and "Happy Birthday Albert!"  clearly, corey and i were in very good piscean company...

we had breakfast at pj's pancake house and  lunch at triumph brewing and checked out a bunch of local shops...  and then we caught "silver linings playbook" at the princeton garden theatre.  it's a lovely theatre with a very friendly staff.  and i highly recommend watching that movie... it was SOOOO GOOOD!!!!!  :')

we stayed at the westin princeton at forrestal village...  where they surprised us with complimentary drinks in their latitude lounge and we found  this when we got to our room!

then, we capped off our birthday weekend with massages and facials... it was a short but very sweet visit...  corey said she hadn't laughed as hard as she had in a very long time...  best. compliment. evar!!!  :)

 ennyhoo...   hopefully, i'll finish the remainder of the birthday skirts and i'll update this post with pics of them all together...  :)  

i saw these amazeballs dance videos on my birthday - so you've prolly already seen them elsewhere, but they're so great - you won't mind seeing them again...  and again...  :)

i love that in this video, some of the dancers are *airquotes* RETIRED *airquotes*...  bwahaha....

oooo...  this video just makes me wanna break out all my 80s pastels....  *doublesnaps*

thanks for coming by and reading, i hope march is treating you well, weather notwithstanding.... :)

happy 7th birthday, paloma! :)

(click on whichever - music or video - you like first... couldn't quite figure out how to add music to my little movie...) :)

	Norah Jones - Seven Years .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

happy seventh birthday to my spinning, laughing, spastic dancing, tone deaf singing little girl... always keep your eyes open, always hope for the sun, always sing your fractured version of jingle bells to anyone who runs for cover....

i'll always worry for your fragility despite your toothy fearless smile and quiet courageous grace...

i love the little people you were, the lovely little person you are right now and am looking forward eagerly to meeting the smart, amazing, funny, inspiring, generous, heartminded person you'll grow up to be.

happy 4th birthday paloma!

so, i managed to pull a birthday party out of my ghetto *ss. it was no easy nor pretty feat.

normally, i would've planned the whole thing in advance, but the trip to manila took so much advance planning (plane tickets, passports, inoculations, hotel, etc...), i just didn't have time. then, when we got back, the priority was getting re-acclimated to chicago time and weather.

finally, last wednesday, i pulled out my "defeated and exhausted mommy" card and called some neighborhood moms and dads (and my awesome stepsister) and got a few "yeses" to my pathetic sob story phoned in birthday invite.

on saturday, the thin man and i got the kids up early for a grocery store run and for the most part that went well (unlike the usual screaming and/or wrestling match). we got the cake and most of the other par-tay provisions at the jewel (btw - i heard that that's a chicago thing to name a store with a "the" at the beginning. c'est vrai, chicagoans?).

then, when they went down for their afternoon naps, i sped out to the dollar store for the party favors and another tablecloth (because i had saved the ripped and stained "my little pony" one from last year... 'cause i'm SUCH a cheapskate... and decided at the last minute against using it).

the party favor gods were with me 'cause i scored a mess of random disney princess stuff for the girl goody bags and some random but cool stuff for boy goody bags (i freakin' hate goody bags... i NEVER got goody bags when i went to parties as a kid - ok, maybe i'm jealous). normally, i don't differentiate between boy or girl goody bags, but these parents did come thru on no notice... i wanted them to feel like i made SOME effort... mind you, i'm still jetlagged... i'm still running on fumes and yawning constantly most of the day.

when the paloma woke up from her nap she was over the moon... it was so good to see her so genuinely wholeheartedly happy. she's still jetlagged too and it's disconcerting not to see her chipper, energized paloma-esque self. she and her nine friends had a (2.5 hour) ball. with veggie booty. and goldfish. and pizza. and capri suns. and cake. and lots of tag. and toys. and crying. and screaming. and more toys. and 10 minutes of a dvd. and goody bags.

clean up was strangely easy however. so, you know i'm going to find a piece of cake in a shoe next fall.

that's ok... that smile is worth it. :)

happy birthday paloma!!!



YAY!!! she's officially a terrible two

paloma shares her birthday with alexander graham bell, jean harlow, robyn hitchcock, miranda richardson, jackie joyner-kersey, and tone-loc.

so happy birthday to all o' yous too. especially tone-loc, you, wild thing....

today in japan, they are celebrating "girl's day" or hinamatsuri.

wait. hmmm, maybe it was yesterday... i always forget the time difference.

i know this because last year, paloma and i spent the day at the shedd aquarium (what else do a pair of pisces do to celebrate birthdays but hang out with the fish). there were some japanese tourists at the aquarium who thought paloma was the cutest thing since... well, what ISN'T cute in japan?! anyway, they wanted to know how old she was and i told them "one". and they got all hella excited because apparently it's good luck for a girl to be born on "girl's day".

anyhoo... best wishes for the happiest of birthdays, baby grrrl...